Week Without Violence With Stella's Girls

WWV2020-Gender-Based Violence Awareness

​Gender-Based Violence (GBV), also known as Sexual and Gender Based Violence, is a function of patriarchy and millennia of socialization in cultures worldwide. GBV serves to keep the "lesser genders" in a place of subservience and fear. It is pervasive. It is global.

The WHO estimates that 1 out of 3 women in the world are victims of GBV. Yet, GBV includes more than cis-gendered women. Girls, boys, gay, lesbian, trans-gendered and all non-conforming sexualities fall victim to Gender Based Violence each day, making the number of people that are  physically and sexually abused by men much higher. 

​Far higher still is the rate at which Black people and People of Color experience violence because of their gender. Not only for their gender but for gender and skin color, they are assaulted. The WHO also has a demographic that estimates instances of Gender-Based Violence against women at around 34% in Western Africa. If you read my posts on the SGBV crisis and protests in Liberia, you will see the number of brutalities committed effects around one-half of women, excluding those who don't report or are in remote areas. This escalates the statistics of Gender-Based Violence even more, all around the world. The UN Women and the WHO are currently running a joint project to gather more accurate SGBV data among the pandemic.

Types of Gender-Based Violence

All of the ways Gender-Based Violence makes itself known are degrading, violating, and life-altering to the people who Gender-Based Violence affects. Here are some, but not all of, the types of GBV: 

• Domestic violence can take the shape of mental, physical, and sexual violence perpetrated by a partner or household member. More often than not, this is the case.
• Sexual Assault or Rape by someone other than a partner, most frequently by a person the woman or girl knows.
• Female Genital Mutilation - involves mutilating external female genitalia. FGM has no medical benefit and causes girls severe health problems.
• Sexual abuse of children - nearly always committed by a trusted friend or family member.
• Child Marriage
• Forced Marriage
• Sex Trafficking

​Join In #WWV2020​

Men and Women alike are working to spread awareness this week. Join us, Stella's Girls, for a week of Public Service Announcements from Stella's Girls’ members and ways to take action. These are on our Facebook page, Instagram posts, Tweets from @stellasgirls, and our partner, the YWCA, founder of the Week Without Violence. We will be working hard to get the message out all week. Make sure to check yesterday's posts and videos out and share them with friends and family.​

Educate Yourself:

Organize Your Butterflies - Is a series of podcasts by the YWCA for this Week. It includes interviews, speakers, and informative panels on Sexual and Gender Based Violence. The first includes the founder of the #MeToo movement.

BEAM - Is the Black Emotional and Mental Health Collective.  Today at 4 pm PST, 7 pm EST, they are hosting a Webinar entitled "The Game Plan: Protection Not Control: Masculinity, Violence & Showing Up For Black Women.” Register HERE. I will be attending. I hope you can, too.

Learning about SGBV is the first step in taking action against it, both as women, and as men.